I got my bees today and installed them without a hitch or a sting. Good start I think. But curiosity got the better of me, I needed to know what they were doing inside of the hive. Almost all of the bees seem to be inside the hive and it was just before 9:30 pm. I didn't want to disturb them to much, so I pulled the cover back a bit and pulled out a couple of the top bars (I use top bar hives) and poked my camera in. The first pic was just bad as it was blocked by a bar. The second was poor and confused me as it was a side-ways shot.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3179/4610534212_55bedb5d2b_o.jpg
I put the camera back in, in a normal fashion and got this pic.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1422/4610534272_55a4ae8e4b_o.jpg
A nice mass of them hanging from the bars.
and the same way with the second hive.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3366/4609925663_a50c2749b0_o.jpg
I think you can see the Queen cage, at the bottom, in all of the shots. I can't tell if they got the Queens out or not. I did not push the marshmallow in the cork hole, I just stuck a glob of it over the hole.
But that is how a top bar hive looks inside.
Added (2010-05-27, 4:27 Am)
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This pic was taken after ~1 week(sorry I did not get this up sooner)
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4028/4644385222_bbf345b18d_o.jpg
Added (2010-07-13, 11:11 Am)
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Some more pictures of the inside my top bar hives.
Bearding on the bar.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4077/4789733559_a7dbd19d64_b.jpg
A look inside of hive 1, front then rear.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/4790366796_919d3036bb_b.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4142/4789733717_b7024966ef_b.jpg
Hive 2 front then rear.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4118/4790367090_670ac1cbf0_b.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4139/4789734119_76e2db65b1_b.jpg
These pics were taken after about 2 weeks. The next time I open them up I will take some more.
